1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of bottling grid in which it is desirable to orient bottles in an orderly array within a bottle carrying case or the like. Although the present design is particularly adaptable for use with a bottle grid requiring the bottles to be packed in an inverted position, it should be appreciated that the present design may be utilized with any type of bottle orientation.
The present grid is usable to place randomly fed bottles in an orderly array. These bottles tend to be quite heavy and therefore require a sturdy apparatus which minimizes chipping of the bottles as they pass through the grid. However, when a bottle packing grid of sufficient strength is used the chipping between the metal and glass is almost impossible to eliminate and therefore the present design has provided a system for eliminating the glass to metal contact by including deflectors, doghouses or pagodas, covers on the guiding surfaces, downwardly extending flexible fingers and inserts all formed from a soft material such as nylon, teflon, plastic, or the like. With this configuration the chipping which has long been a problem in this field of art is eliminated.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Many devices have been utilized for orienting bottles into an orderly array for placement into bottle carrying cases and the like. However none have been devised which eliminate the glass to metal contact and provide for a smooth downwardly flowing bottle orientation to register with the axis of the cells of the case. U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,141 is an example of such a bottle packing machine which includes the downwardly extending fingers but utilizes partitions extending in two directions perpendicular to one another to present the array of cells into which the bottles are guided. The present packing grid utilizes partitions extending only in a single direction and the orderly array is created by the adjacent positioning of the guide surfaces of the finger mounting blocks. The Walter design does not eliminate the glass to metal contact and, as such, the inherent problem of chipping of the glass bottles is not overcome as in the present invention.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,271,928 and 2,686,632 and 2,727,664 provide devices for packing bottles. However none of these designs include the plurality of soft inserts along the upper edge of the partitioning means as well as the guiding surfaces of the present invention which provide the flush condition for the smooth transition of the bottles as soon as they have passed the doghouses and upper edges of the partitions. Also many of these designs utilize fingers extending downwardly from the upper edge of the partitions such that the finger material bends at a sharp angle which is impacted by the downwardly moving bottles. In this configuration the sharp angles of bending of the finger over the partition provides an inherent weakened area which provides a maintenance problem due to frequent breakage of the fingers at this location. The present invention includes singly mounted fingers which are fixedly secured in place by the nylon covers and do not include sharp bending angles which thereby eliminates the finger breakage problem. In this manner the fingers of the present design are protected from breakage by the nylon cover plates.
Other designs have also utilized rigid guiding elements whereas the present invention includes a movable deflector or guiding block which may be pivotally or otherwise movably secured to the partition means to prevent chipping of downwardly moving bottles when they contact the doghouse with hard impact. Also the nylon inserts have a slight degree of lateral movement to allow for minimal flexing in response to a high impact between the downwardly moving bottles and the inserts.